I imagine everyone has read about the death of North Face founder, and Foundation for Deep Ecology founder, Douglas Tompkins. Here is a link to the NYT article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/busin ... ident.html
He died the right way - in the wild, taking the kind of risk without which a good life is impossible. Before he died, he protected over 2 million acres of land before it was destroyed for the sake of economic growth. He lived the right way.
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/inde ... _tompkins/
Douglas Tompkins is a great example of how hiking can lead one into a selfless love for wilderness. That does not happen often enough. Mostly, we just love it to death, instead of to life, like he did.
I wish that he could have lived longer.